Union Calendar No. 28. 

6l8T Congress, ( HOUSE OF REPKESENTATIVES. J Report 
'Zd Session. ( | Xo. 121, 


TERM OF OFFICE OF PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENT. ETC. 


.lANtTAHv 11, iniO.—Coininitted to the ('oninuttee of the Wiiole House on the state 
of the Fiiion and ordered to be printed. 


Mr. IIknry, of Texas, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submit¬ 
ted the following- 

EEPORT. 


[To accoiniiaiiy H. .1. Res. 115.] 


The Committee on the fludieiar} , to whom was referred House 
joint resolution No. 3, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, beg leave to report the same back to the House with 
a i*ecommendation that the following substitute be adopted: 

House joint resolution Jl.'i. 

Resolved ht/ the Senate and House of Represeniatires of the United SUdes of America 
in Congress assembled {two-thirds of each House concurring therein). That the following 
article is propo.^ed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, 
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, shall be valid 
to all intents and purposes as a part of the Constitution and as an additional article 
thereof: 

Section 1. The term of office of the President and Vice-President and of the 
Senators and Representatives in C^ongress shall commence and terminate on the last 
Thursday of April, at noon. 

Sec. 2. The existing term of office of the President and Vice-President and the 
•terms of Members of the House of Representatives, which would under existing law 
begin on the fourth day of March, nineteen hundred and eleven, shall continue until 
the last Thursday of April, in the year nineteen hundred and thirteen, at noon. 

Sec. 8. All Senators elected prior to the adoption of this amendment shall continue 
in office until the last Thursday of April at noon next succeeding the fourth day of 
March of the year in which the terms otherwise would have expired, any provision 
of Article One, section three, of the Constitution to the contrary notwithstanding. 

The resolution does not iimend any particular article or section of 
the Constitution, but shall constitute an additional article thereto, 
should the necessary number of States ratify the same. The 4th day 
of March, as the day for inaugurating the new administration, is not 
fixed by the present Constitution, but grew out of certain emergencies 
in history at the beginning of our Government. Experience of more 
than one"hundred years has demonstrated the 4th day of March to be 
a failure as a suitable date to inaugurate the new President and the 
beginning of a new administration, and during all these years there 
ha.s been constant agitation in favor of a different date. 






9 






^ 'PEKM OF OFFK'K OF I’HFSl OKN'l', V l(' F-i’KFSI I)FNT, F/PC 


Tlu' 8t>ver(‘ wt^ither fi iMjut'Mtly pi’in uilinn' on tliut <hit(‘ lia.s 

made it nuinifest that a later date is d(^siral>le. There ai'C many otiier 
I’easons why this chan<»e is })rc)p(‘r, l)iit tin* committee does not diiern 
it necessarv to liere s(d tliem out. After due consideration ^y(‘ have 
concluded that tlie last Thursday of April is a suitahle day for this 
great national event. Your committ*('e l)('liev(' that, taking into con¬ 
sideration the weatlu'r conditions and other circumstances, the last 
d'hursday in April will ])rove to he satisfactory as a date to put in 
motion the machinery of a new administration. 

The first section of the proposed aimmdment provid(‘s that the t(‘rm 
of office of th(‘ President and Vici'-l^n'sident and of benators and Rep- 
I’esentatives shall commence and t(‘rminate on the last Thursday of 
April. 

The second section extends the existing terms of office of Presidejit, 
Yice-Pi’esident, Senators, and Rei)iesentatives, which under «‘xisting 
law begin on the 4th day of Mai'ch. 19f1, until the last Fhursday of 
April, 19 to. 

Section provides in effect that Senators elected prior to the adoj)- 
tion of this amendment shall continue in office until the last 4 liursday 
of April next suc(*eeding the 4th day of Mtirch of the year in which 
their terms otherwisi^ would have expired. 

It is intei*esting to know why the 4th day of March Ix'came Inau¬ 
guration l)a3y not hcdng a ))art of the Constitution. It can not he 
moi*e engaginglv narrated than to give the history as set out hy Mr. 
Parker, of New Jersey, in his admirable pa])er prepaia'd for this com¬ 
mittee, dated flanuary 12, 190J. Me said: 


It is of historical interest to see how the piesent state of affairs came about. We 
get little information from the Constitution itself. Tliat instrument is strangely 
silent on the great (juestion of how it was to l)e put into operation. It tells us that 
it shall go into effect when it shall have been ratilied by the conventions of nine 
States (Article VII); 

“The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sutiicient for theestab- 
lishnient of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.” 

It declares also, in Article I, section 4, that— 

“The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representa¬ 
tives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof”— 
subject t(j change by Congress; that the Congress shall assemble at least once in 
every year, and that “such meeting shall be on the first 3Ionday in December, unless 
they sliall bylaw appoint a different day.” So far it seems plain that after nine 
States shall have ratified the Constitution by their conventions, each State might 
hold an election for Mem' ers of Congress, the legislators would choose Senators, and, 
unless otherwise provided b}^ law. Congress would meet on the first Monday in 
December thereafter. It would seem as if the Government of the United States 
under the new (Constitution was expected to begin on that day, so far as that Con¬ 
stitution speaks. 

But the place of meeting is left absolutely undefined by the Constituti(jn. 

There is still more uncertainty and difficulty under the terms of the instrument 
about the election of a President. By Article 11, section 1, each State was to appoint 
the electors in such manner as the legislature might direct, and the Congress might 
determine “the time of choosiiig the electors and the day on which they shall give 
their votes, which day shall be the same throughout the United States.” Until Cmi- 
gress should exist and should fix the time for choosing electors, the States could 
|)robably proceed to make that choice without limitation. But the day on which the 
electors so chosen should meet and vote was to be the same within the United States 
and could not be determined except by Congress. 

IJow this was to be done when there was as yet no Congress, and how then the 
first election of the President was to be held, are not gati ered from the Constitu¬ 
tion. And whether this time could be fixed for choosing a President by concurrent 
resolution of the two Houses, or whether the States should take the responsibility of 
proceeding with the meeting of the electors, each for themselves, would likewise 
.«eem to be a (luestion of doubt. However, with the Constitution alone to gui(le ns, 


c 


TKKM OF OFFICE OF PKESI DKN'l’, V K’E-PKESI DENT, ET(’. 


:3 


it would be su})po«ed that tlie electort^ would proceed to hold their iiieetiiifr iii the 
several States at such time as the States should think proper, and that the clause 
^ |of the Constitution just recited that Congress should lix the day of election would 
(he left in abeyance uiitd there should be a Congress, including a President, to make 
this regulation. 

It is in this manner that one would suppose that the new Government would have 
been formed under tin* Constitution. It was not thus formed. It did not go into 
effect upon the first IVIonday in December, l)ut upon the first Wednesday in March. 
The day for the choosing of electors—that is, the election day—as well as the day 
for the meeting of the electors, and the day and j)lace for the first meeting of Con¬ 
gress and for the establishment of the new Government were not fixed by the (con¬ 
stitution itself, nor by the several States, nor by the new Congress, but by an out¬ 
side authority—the Congress of the old Confederation. 

P>y the articles of that Confederation it had been provided that those articles 
should be perpetual, and that no alteration thereof should be made unless it should 
be agr(‘ed to in a Congress of the United States and be afterwards confirmed by the 
legislatures of all the several States. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was 
therefore called under a resolution of the old Congress recommending a convention 
of delegates, which should consider and report to that Congress a proposed revision 
of the Articles of Confederation, so that the alterations and new provisions so reported 
should be agreed to in a Congress and confirmed l)y the S ates. 

“Thus the resolution pursued carefully the mode of amendment and alteration 
provided by the Articles of Confederation, except that it interposed a convention 
for the purpose of origirniting tlu* changes to be proposed in the existing form of 
government, adding, however, the great general pur{)ose of rendering the Federal 
Constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the 
Union.” (Constitutional Historv of the United States, George Ticknor Curtis, vol. 

The convention, as is well known, went much further than was projK>sed by this 
resolution of the Congress of the Confederation. It reported a constitution which 
was a revolution, and was to take the place of the Articles of Confederation, and 
was to be adopted by conventions of the people. It was also recognized that so 
radical a change might not obtain the assent of all tlie States, and it was therefore 
provided that this new Constitution should go into effect upon the ratification by 
nine States, 

“Article VII. The ratitication of the conventions of nineStates shall bcsuthcient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.” 

At the same time the conservative men who drew the new Constitution desired 
that this great change should be instituted with the assent of the old government 
rather than by way of revolution. It was well p )inted out by Curtis (vol. 1, p. 24b): 

“For the wise* precc^dent, thus established, of placing the formation of a new 
government under the direct sanction of the old one, the jieotde of this country 
are indebted chiefly to Hamilton. Nothing can be more unfortunate in any country 
than the necessity, or the rashness, which sweeps away an established constitution 
before a substitute has been devised. True' liberty has gained little, in any age or 
country, from revolutions which have excluded the possibility of seeking or obtain¬ 
ing the assent of existing power to . the reforms which the j)rogress of society has 
demanded. 


* * -x- * * * * 

“In the days when the Confederation was tottering to its fall; when its revenues 
had been long exhausted, and wh.en its Congress embraced, in actual attendance, 
less than thirty delegatees from only eleven of the S^tates, it would have been the easy 
part of a demagogue to overthrow it by a siublen appeal to the passions and interests 
of the hour as the lirst step to a radical change. But the great man, whose mature and 
energetic youth, trained in the scIk)o1 of Washington, had been devoted to the 
formation and establishment of the Union, knew too well that if its golden cord 
were once liroken no human agency could restore it to life. He knew the value of 
habit, the respect for an established, however enh'ebled, authority; and while he 
felt and insisted on the necessity for a new Constitution, and did all in his power to 
make the country {lerceive the defects of the old one, he wisely and honestly ad¬ 
mitted that the assent of Congress must be gained to any movement which proposed 
to remedy the evil.” 

Accordingly, when the convention had agreed on the form of the proposed constitu¬ 
tion, they reported it to the Congress of the Confederation, and shortly before their 
adjournment adopted a resolution, on September 17,1787, which left the old Congress 
in full control of the situation and of starting the wheels of the new Government. 






4 TEHM OF OFFICE OF PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENT, ET<'. 


'"Bewlved, That it is the opinion of this convention that as soon as tlie conventions 
of nine States have ratified this Constitution, the United States in Congress shall fix 
a dav on which electors shall be appointed by the States which shall have ratified 
the same, and a day on which the electors shall assemble to vote for President, and 
the time and place for commencing the proceedings under this Constitution; that 
after such publication the electors should be appointed and th§ Senators and Repre¬ 
sentatives elected; that the electors should meet on the day fixed for the election of 
the President, and should transmit their votes certified, signed, sealed, and directed, 
as the Constitution recpiires, to the Secretary of the United States in Congress assem¬ 
bled; that the vSenators and Representatives shall convene at the time and place 
assigned; that the Senate should a})point a president for the sole purpose of receiv¬ 
ing, oj)ening, and counting tlie votes for President, and that after he shall be chosen 
the Congress, together with the President, should, without delay, proceed to execute 
the Constitution.” (Madison Papers, 541, an.d Journal of Congress, vol. 12, pp. 163, 
164, and vol. 4, p. 781, of the reprint.) 

Thus the convention left to the ohl Congress of thirteen States to start the new 
Government of nine, to fix election days and the time and i>lace for beginning the 
new Government. The votes were to be sent to the Secretary of the Confederation, 
there being no President of the Senate, and this last officer was to be electe<l pro 
tempore to count the votes and thus install a Vice-President. 

An official letter to Congress was ])re])ared to accompany the C<mstitution, which 
was signed on the 14th day of September, 1787. The results of the proceedings, 
which till then had been absolutely secret, were published on September 19. The 
Congress of the Confederation then passed an ordinance recommending the calling 
of conventions in the several States to consider the ratification of tlie new Constitu¬ 
tion, and these were called. But, as is well known, the ratification of the Constitution 
by nine States was long delayed. Three, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, 
ratified in December, 1787; Georgia and Connecticut in January, 1788; Massachusetts 
in February; Maryland, April 28; South Carolina, May 23, an<l New Hampshire, the 
ninth State, on June 21, 1788. The news of the ratification by these nine States was 
then communicated to the Co'ngress of the Confederation in a long and careful letter 
signed by (ieorge Washington. 

It was thus by a sort of common consent (though not by the terms of the Con¬ 
stitution itself) submitted to the Congress of the Confederation to determine when 
and where the new government should go into effect. It may be that the assent 
of the Congress of the Confederation was not necessary, but it was desired. The 
new Constitution had been so carefully drawn as that in evi'ry respect it strength¬ 
ened rather than repealed the provisions of the Articles of Confederation, including 
all these provisions and many more. It was “a more perfect union ” as between 
the States which adopted it. It might be argued that this more perfect union 
between some of tlie States was not inconsistent with the imperfect union which 
already existed with the others, and that if any State should not sign the Constitu¬ 
tion it would still be in the Confederation with those that had so signed. 

In requiring the assent of nine States as a prereipiisite to the existence of the Con¬ 
stitution, as well as in asking the assent of the Congress of the Confederation, the 
convention followed with the })rovision of the Articles of Confederation that “no 
two or more States should enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever 
between them without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, 
specifying accurately the purpose for which the same is to be entered into and how 
long it shall continue” (Article VI, paragraph 2), while by those same articles ques¬ 
tions of war and peace, treaties and alliances, coining money, raising expenses, 
borrowing or approjiriating mone}', settling the size of the navy or of the army, or 
appointing a commander in chief thereof, were not to be considered unless nine 
States should assent to the same (Article IX, next to last paragrajih). The new 
Constitution was very largely directed to these vital questions and re(iuire<l the same 
ratification by nine States. 

It looks as if the new Constitution was to be so established under the old Articles 
of Confederation as to allow both to exist together if only part of the States should 
finally ratify the more perfect union. 

We have no report of the proceedings and debates of the Congress of the Confed¬ 
eration at that time, but in the resolutions which were proposed and adopted this 
question as to what should be the status between the States who should come in 
under the Constitution and those who should stay out was wisely left in the back¬ 
ground. It is apparent, however, that there was much discussion and dissension as 
to the place where the first meeting of the new Congress should take place and 
which would be the new seat of goverment. In the various resolutions introduced 
between June and September there is also some difference as to when the election 


rKRM OF OFFICE OF PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENT, ETC. 5 

shall be held, but they all mention an early day in March, 1789, as the time for com¬ 
mencing proceedings under the new Constitution. It is easy to see why this was so. 
Nine States had joined by June 21,1788, but the great State of Virginia did not ratify 
the Constitution till June 26, nor did New York till July 26. North Carolina and 
Rhode Island refused to go into the new Union at all, and did not finally join until 
November 21, 1789, and May 29, 1790, respectively. 

Thus, in the summer of 1788, and even in September of that year, when eleven 
States had ratified, it still seemed expedient to leave time for the other States to 
debate the matter and to come in. Legislatures would meet in the winter, and action 
of the legislatures of various States was requisite not only to elect Senators, but also 
to appoint election days for members of Congress, while in the absence of railroads 
and telegraphs communicatioji with the more distant States was slow and difficult 
from the city of New York. Therefore it was essential to make the day so late that- 
elections could be held, but it seemed equally essential that the adoption and the 
actual working of the Constitution should not be delayed until the December of the 
following year, and accordingly, on September 13, 1788, a resolution of Congress was 
passed, as follows: 

“ whereas the convention assembled in Philadelphia, pursuant to the resolution 
of Congress of the 21st of February, 1787, did, on the 17th day of September of the 
same year, report to the United States in Congress assembled a Constitution for the 
people of the United States; whereupon Congress, on the 28th of the same Septem¬ 
ber, did resolve unanimously ‘that the said report, with the resolutions and letter 
accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several legislatures, in order to be 
submitted to a convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the people thereof, 
in conformity to the resolves of the convention made and provided in that case 
and whereas the Constitution so rei)orted by the convention and by Congress trans¬ 
mitted to the several legislatures has been ratified in the manner therein described 
to be sufficient for the establishment of the same and such ratifications, duly authen¬ 
ticated, have been received by Congress and are filed in the office of the secretary : 
Therefore 

'‘^Resolved, That the hrst Wednesday in January next be the day for appointing 
electors in the several States which, before the said day, shall have ratified the said 
Constitution ; that the first Wednesday in February next be the day for the electors 
to assemble in their respective States and vote for a President, and that the first 
Wednesday in March next be the time and the ]i)resent seat of Congress the place for 
commencing the proceedings under the said Constitution.” (Journal of Continental 
Congress, Vol. IV, p. 867.) 

Thus the time in which the Constitution should go into effect was fixed by a body 
which was not mentioned in that Constitution. The Congress of the old Confedera¬ 
tion, which thus gave their assent to the institution of this new Government within 
the boundaries of the old, ratified a new Government, which was to take effect by 
its own vigor, proprio vigore, but nevertheless by the assent of the old. There is no 
statement in this resolution that the old Government shall cease to exist, but there 
runs through all the proceedings the recognition that, with the institution of the 
new, the old one would fade away. But it is a strange proof of the real sense of the 
union of the whole nation that the old Government, without authority therefor in 
its articles of confederation, should fix the day for appointing electors, and the day 
for them to assemble in their respective States and vote for a President, and the 
day for commencing proceedings under a new Constitution. 

Oddly enough, nothing is said, even in this resolution, as to the assembling of 
Congress on the 4th of March. The resolution simply says that it is time for com¬ 
mencing proceedings under the new Constitution. By that Constitution there was 
to be no meeting of Congress until the first Monday in December. At the same 
time it was manifest, and had been recognized in the resolution of the Constitutional 
Convention, that there could be no President till the votes were counted in the 
presence of Congress, so that if proceedings were to commence at all they must com¬ 
mence by the assembling of the new Congress for that purpose. 

Accordingly a Congress did assemble in New York, nominally on the 4th of March, 
1789. On March 4 but 8 of the 22 Senators appeared. Adjournments were had 
from day to day until the 11th, when an urgent call was sent out. Adjournments 
were again made from day to day until the I8th, when another call was sent out. 
The Senate then adjourned again from day to day until April 6, when, a quorum 
having appeared, the vote was counted, and George Washington and John Adams 
were declared elected President and Vice-President, and committees were sent to 
look them up at their homes, where they had remained. The building that was in 
use was that of the city of New York, and the city was thanked for the accommoda¬ 
tions furnished. 


6 


TKHM OF OFFK’F OF I’KFvSlDKNT, VICK-PRKWIDFNT, KT(’. 


On April 18 the Vice-President aj)peared and took the chair, and adjourimients 
continued from day to day until the 25th, when the Houses learned that the Presi¬ 
dent had received notice of his election and had agreed to attend at any time that 
the Houses would appoint. It is understood that preparations could not be made 
before Thursday, April 30, and it was ordered that the President should then be 
received by both Houses in the Senate Chamber. He landed in the city of New York, 
having been conducted over the Hudson in a barge, and was “received with acclama¬ 
tion.” On the 30th of April the minutes tell us that he was duly received by the 
Vice-President, conducted to the chair, and given the oath of ofiice, and that the 
crier made proclamation, “Long live (ieorge Washington, President of the United 
States.” Thus the new Government had begun on the 4th of March, but it had no 
President until the 30th of April. 


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